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Good Samaritan Tries To Resuscitate 11-Year-Old Girl Who Later Died After Jumping Into Florida Retention Pond

By Angelica N. Sumter
Published on: 21:45 PST, Mar 20, 2016

A Good Samaritan tried desperately to resuscitate an 11-year-old Florida girl who reportedly drowned after jumping into a retention pond to retrieve her sister’s backpack according to the Palm Beach Post.

The young girl has since been identified as Alexandria Fitzgerald. Reports state that on March 17, Fitzgerald jumped into the retention pond after someone reportedly threw her sister JoAnna’s backpack into a pond “behind Santaluces High School on Lawrence and Lantana roads, just blocks from her home.”

It was not immediately clear who threw the child’s backpack into the pond, but Alexandria didn’t hesitate to jump into the pond to retrieve it. But as she was wading in the water, attempting to get ahold of the backpack, it was reported that she fell and drowned. When her sister realized that Alexandria – who was a fifth-grader at Starlight Cove Elementary – fell into the pond, she ran three blocks to her home to get help.

Their mother Jennifer Fitzgerald told reporters that she recalls JoAnna breathing heavily as she shouted, “Alexandria is in the water.” And at that moment, the mother of five stated that she lost a heartbeat.

When emergency crews arrived at the scene, they found the Good Samaritan performing CPR on the child, according to WPBF. However, it was reported that after Alexandria was rushed to JFK Medical Center, she died several hours later in the emergency room. Palm Beach police officials searched the area to make sure that everyone Alexandria was with at the time was “safe and accounted for.”

Reports indicate that Alexandria’s siblings were uninjured during the calamity, and their reason for being at the retention pond, where a “sign warns people not to swim, dive, or wade,” was because they were playing a game. The children were out of school on spring break and decided to walk to the pond, where things went awry and the 11-year-old school girl ultimately lost her life.

The drowning victim’s mother Jennifer Fitzgerald told reporters that she told her daughter she loved her the night before, and now that she is gone she’ll never “hear her voice saying it back.”

“I just wish she would’ve come to me to get the backpack. She just wanted to help her sister…She was so caring, humble, sweet.”

Alexandria’s classmate Veronica Alvorado, who sat next to her in class, told reporters that she was “special and everybody was really nice to her. And I used to help her with her homework.”

Lashandra Pits, who works in the lunch room at Starlight Cove Elementary, stated that the drowned victim “meant a lot. She really did. She was an angel that God just took home. She was a loving child. She was well liked. That was one of my best little friends. She would say, ‘Can I get a hug, friend?’ She was a cheerful child. I am going to miss her.”

When the principal at Starlight Cove Elementary school learned that Alexandria Fitzgerald drowned after jumping into a retention pond, trying to retrieve her sister’s backpack, a phone call was made to all parents stating that “it is with very heavy heart that I called to inform you that one of our students passed away yesterday. Our thoughts are with the student’s family and friends at the time of great sorrow.”

When a parent learned that one of the students that attended Starlight Cove Elementary school had passed away, they stated that “it was a very disturbing call that a little girl across the street passed away. It’s just very, very sad.”

A vigil was held Friday night at the wooden dock near the retention pond where Alexandria last stood, and flowers, teddy bears, and lit candles were left in her memory.

[Image via Getty Images/ Christopher Furlong]

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